The Express Tribune: PK: Friday, January 05, 2018.
In a bid to
enhance the public’s access to the government, the local government department
on Wednesday decided to empower officers at the tehsil and the village council
level as the point person to respond to public information requests.
To fulfil the
criteria outlined under the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Act 2013,
the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Local Government Department issued a notification
giving the additional charge of public information officers (PIOs) to Tehsil
Municipal Officers (TMOs) and secretaries of the village and neighbourhood
councils.
Following the
notification, the K-P Right to Information Commission noted that the number of
PIOs in the province has sextupled from 529 to 3,011.
Citizens can
now address their information requests, filed under the Right to Information
Act 2013, to each respective Tehsil for any information regarding the working
of the local government authorised under the law.
RTI
Commission’s Chief Information Commissioner Azmat Hanif Aurakzai said that the
purpose of designating these PIOs at the grassroots level was to alleviate the
difficulties faced by citizens in obtaining information of public importance
from the public bodies, especially from the village and neighbourhood councils.
Apart from
providing public information to the citizen, the PIOs will also maintain a
formal record of all information requests in a register which has been
specially prepared and distributed amongst all the PIOs.
Orakzai
further added that a handbook is being prepared for the guidance of newly
appointed PIOs to efficiently dispose of the information requests of citizens.
A series of training sessions will be organised at the district level by the
information commission for systematic training of PIOs.
Highlighting
just how interested the people were in the workings of the government, Orakzai
pointed out that over the past three and a half years, over 10,500 citizens had
filed RTI requests with public bodies across the province — except for in the
seven districts of the Malakand Division where the RTI law has not been
extended.
Out of these,
around 7,000 information requests were answered by public bodies. However,
around 4,000 citizens complained that they were not provided information by the
public bodies.
Further, he
said that the RTI Commission successfully disposed of 3,405 cases in accordance
with the RTI ACT whereas the remaining are in the process of adjudication.
The
Information Commission, with the help of the K-P Directorate of Information
Technology, has also introduced an electronic form for the right to information
system (E-RTI) for Peshawar, where citizens can email their RTI requests and
complaints.
Moreover,
people can call the information commission on the toll-free number 0800-57784
for general guidance about the RTI law and its usage. A plan has also been
chalked out for creating awareness about the RTI law, especially in the remote
districts and rural areas of the province.
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